52 Flashes Of Fiction: Week 20 – Six Guesses

The trouble is this: whatever dots you put on the paper, someone will want to connect them together. Someone walking by will have the hardest time not stopping to ponder why they are there and what they mean. They will whisper to their friend that they see a bunny or a fire hydrant or a talk show host. And their friend will say something like, “That’s neat but I see a water buffalo or maybe a squiggly-looking radish.” And worst of all they will turn to you; they will look at you with their eyes that themselves contain many, many shapes that you’re not guessing and they will ask, “What is it supposed to be? What did you intend for us to see?”

And you’ll at first try to tell them that you really just enjoy putting dots on paper, and maybe a little bit because it’s fun to hear everybody’s guesses, and to think about why you can’t tell them it’s because they keep guessing that you keep doing it, because then they would never get it.

They won’t like that though, and you’ll get tired. You’ll have a magic number, like six guesses or so, and on the sixth guess you’ll yell out “Yes! Finally someone gets it! Oh wow, you are impressive!” And you just keep doing whatever you want and it’s easy, but also troublesome and lonely.

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2 thoughts on “52 Flashes Of Fiction: Week 20 – Six Guesses”

Wow. It’s human nature to want to make “sense” out of art and, as an observer, sometimes you miss the part that screams “this art is this person’s expression” and look for your own expression. I honestly never give into guesses. All of the short stories I write leave room for guesses but I like the crazy assumptions and never tell any one person that he or she is “right.”